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OVERVIEW

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.""Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.""A good name is better than riches."

There are lots of sayings about names, and most of them are at best only partially true. In this lesson, students investigate the meanings and origins of their names in order to establish their own personal histories and to explore cultural significance of naming traditions. Students begin by writing down everything they know about their own names, then the teacher shares details about his or her own name story. Next, students use an online tool to research their own or someone else’s name and share their findings with the class. Finally, students write about their own names, using a passage from Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street as a model.

FEATURED RESOURCES

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

In "Exploring Heritage: Finding Windows into Our Lives," Jessica Matthews-Burell explains, "By investigating the etymology and significance of our names, we realize that name-giving practices vary from one culture to another" (33). When Diana Mitchell asked students to explore naming, they were "fascinated to hear how different racial and ethnic groups had different naming traditions" (65). Mitchell observed:

Many of the Latino students had been named after someone special, usually a relative who had a close relationship with the family. Many of the African American students found that their parents had created a name especially for them. The Caucasian students were often named just because their parents liked the name. In some families a close friend had been allowed to choose their name as a sign of their importance to the family. (65)

Using the copy-change imitation process explained in Getting the Knack (90-94), students can explore all these many aspects of their own names, gaining insight on their own personal history and understanding how naming is part of larger cultural traditions by comparing their own examples to those of other writers.